'Players need to work with their clubs' - states Derry City general manager Dodie McGuinness

Speaking on RTÉ's Soccer Podcast, McGuinness stated that the Candy Stripes, who have stopped training, have issued individual training programmes for players, and will remotely monitor player progress via GPS, believes that the League of Ireland season will likely have to be extended.

"The challenges I suppose, similar to every other club, you have no cash coming in the gate and while we have support from a very generous chairman, you still have a budget and you still have revenues that you need to earn to actually support everybody," she stated.

"You have the difficulty in terms of Irish players and players who are outside of Ireland, who have families elsewhere, and how do you cope with that and how do you cope with honouring contracts?

"Players need to work with their clubs and if clubs financially can't pay them their full salary today, but they are going to honour their contracts, then we are all going to have to work together.

"Our board haven't made any final decision on how they will move going forward financially, but we are meeting all the players, we are giving them programmes and telling them to be careful, look after themselves and look after their families and see where this goes.

"I think the time frame of this is scary, because if you look at, say China, which was one of the first countries to close down, that has been running for three months and it's not completely finished yet, so you aren't talking two weeks, you are talking 14, 16 or 18 weeks and then I think a bigger discussion has to be held in terms of how we restart a league."

McGuinness also said that Declan Devine and his management team will be in regular contact with the squad throughout the coming days and weeks and they have also reassured the players that their wages will be fine this month.

"They are probably like everybody," she added. "There's an uncertainty amongst the boys and no one has certainty to give them other than give them a programme, tell them to keep themselves well, and although you can't commit three months down the line, assure them that the board will have their wages, will be OK this month, and then we'll all come back and review all this type of stuff and I think every club is going to be the same thing.

"But I do think it's important that the structure of the clubs keep in contact with their individual players. Ours will be given a programme and the management team have been tasked to keep in contact with them every day and we as a club are doing as much as we can to help our players and that's all clubs can do at this stage, as it's very early to make any concrete decisions, but I think we have to have the discussions with everybody to move this whole situation forward and if we have to play right up to Christmas then we have to do it.

"We met the players to have that personnel contact and it just wasn't an e-mail saying that training has stopped. We met the players, gave them their programme and equipment, and told them to ring in every other day - 'we'll be in touch with you and we'll keep you up to speed' - because I think that's the important thing, personnel contact is the important thing."